CBSE Class 10 Social Sciences VBQ Novels, Society and History
Q.1.Which social values Charles Dickens novel ‘Hard Times’ highlighted ? Mention any three.
Ans. (i) The novelist has explained how the poor roamed the streets for jobs and the homeless were forced to seek shelter in the workhouses.
(ii) Due to industrialisation cities became place full of machinery, smoking chimneys, rivers polluted purple.
iii) Industrialists reduced human beings into simple instruments of production.
Q.2.Explain the role of novelists in the field of social reforms in India with the help of any three examples. [CBSE 2014]
Ans. (i) The novel Saraswatiuijayam stresses the importance of education for the upliftment of the lower castes.
(ii) The writer of novel Indulekha wanted his readers to appreciate the new values of education and criticise the ignorance.
(iii) Novelist like Munshi Premchand wrote about the poor conditions of peasants and how they were being exploited by the landlords.
Q.3. Which social issues were included in the novels in India? Explain by giving examples. [CBSE 2014]
Or
‘Novels helped in creating a sense of social awareness in India.’ Explain. [CBSE 2012]
Ans. (i) Caste system : Many novelist like Potheri Kunjambu, Advaita Malla Burman, Munshi Premchand wrote exclusively on the caste system prevailing in the Indian society. They wrote how the depressed classes were being exploited by the Britishers and by the Indian people themselves.
(ii) Westernisation of Indian culture : Many novels like Pariksha Guru reflects the inner and outer world of the newly emerging middle classes. The characters in the novel are caught in the difficulty of adapting to colonised society and at the same time preserving their own cultural identity. The world of colonial modernity seems to be both frightening and irresistible to the characters. The novel tries- to teach the reader the ‘right way’ to live and expects all ‘sensible men’ to be worldly-wise and practical, to remain rooted in the values of their own tradition and culture, and to live with dignity and honour.
(iii) Communities based on democratic values : Novelist like Munshi Premchand highlighted the need to create a community based on democratic values.
Q.4. What were the favourite themes to women novelists in India? Explain giving any three examples. [CBSE 2012]
Ans. (i) New conception of womanhood : A reason for the popularity of novels among women was that it allowed5 for a new conception of womanhood. Stories of love which was a staple theme of many novels showed women who could choose or refuse their partners and relationships. It showed women who could to some extent control their lives.
(ii) Women changing the world : Some women authors also wrote about women who changed the world of both men and women.
(iii) Satiric fantasy : Rokeya Hossein (1880¬1932) a reformer who wrote a satiric fantasy in English called Sultana’s Dream (1905) which shows a topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men. Her novel Padmarag also showed the need for women to reform their condition by their own actions.
(iv) Women’s daily Life : Bengali writer Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women – about how women were imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic labour and treated unjustly by the very people they served.
(v) Condition of upper caste women : In the 1880s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
